ABOUT MIWATARI

ABOUT OUR BRAND-NAME "MIWATARI"

Lake Suwa (Suwa-ko) is locatedin the central part of Nagano Prefecture , JAPAN. It is famous for 'O-MIWATARI' , a noteworthy natural phenomenon. The lake has a natural hot spring under the surface, so that when the top freezes in the winter, the lower waters are still warm and circulating. This results in pressure ridges forming in the ice, shaping like a icy mountain. Local belief holds that the pressure ridges are formed by a god crossing the lake to a goddess of 'Suwa-Taisha (Suwa Grand Shrine - is over 1200 years old. It is one of the Shinto shrines of Japan. It consists of four shrine building complexes, surrounding Lake Suwa) ' . The phenomenon's name is 'O-MIWATARI'. Our brand-name comes from this phenomenon and auspicious legend.

ABOUT "Okaya City"

Okaya City (759m above sea level） is situated on the west banks of Lake Suwa, located in the center of Nagano Prefecture. When it is fine, we can see 'the Yatsugatake Mountain range', and even Mt. Fuji in the distance.

From the Meiji Era through into the start of the Showa Era (1868-1930) , Okaya City rapidly made its mark as one of Japan's largest producers of export-quality silk. After the World-War, Okaya soon established itself as a city of precision machinery, focusing on the manufacturing of products such as watches and cameras. Nowadays, Okaya is an industrial city which continues to develop an industrial structure that can supply high quality precision products and parts.

HOW TO MAKE OUR "MIWATARI"

In the place of severe cold , our sake specialists (called toji /under the leadership of Mr.YUKIO KOMATSU who has engaged in making sake long time) make 'MIWATARI' with the utmost care.The most important two materials of making sake are 'rice' and 'water' . We choise hand-picked local materials, the local rice 'miyama-nishiki' 'hito-gokochi(shin-miyama-nishiki)' 'shirakaba-nishiki' 'yoneshiro' and so on , the local under-ground water of Hachibuse-mountain that is located near Okaya City． We make sake using the materials properly according to the characteristics of each type of sake. As a result , we can make our local sake that the five tastes (sweet, sour, astringency, spicy and bitter) harmonase very well.